Zona

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

4th Avenue Street Fair

I remember going to the street fair when i was in high school. There were so many cool things that I wanted to buy but they were expensive for the broke younger me. Some of the same stuff is there for sale at they mark their 40th anniversary. I was very happy to see that it was happening while we were in town this time. There's a spring fair and a fall fair. It's 5 blocks long now with plenty of food and performers and is boasted to be the largest fair of it's kind in the country now.

It started as a sidewalk sale put on by the businesses on 4th Avenue. It's always been an eclectic street. Wedged between downtown and the U of A there are only 2 businesses remaining that I remember being there when I was a kid, the Dairy Queen, and Caruso's Italian Restaurant. One of these days I will eat at Caruso's.

The end of an era

When I was a kid, my dad took me to Hi Corbett field in Tucson to see my hero, Willie Mays, play. Hi Corbett was the spring training home of The Cleveland Indians. We would go sit in the bleachers on a sunny spring day and watch the games. I took my glove and dreamt of catching a foul ball hit into the stands. My dream came true one day and it was one of the big thrills of my young life.

I don't remember many names but Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Bobby Bonds all came to town with the Giants.

Years later the ugly side of baseball would raise it's head. The Indians left after Phoenix built them a better facility than Tucson was willing to. The "if you build it, he will come" games began. Tucson would make improvements to Hi Corbett and the Colorado Rockies came. Tucson built a second facility and the Chicago White Sox, and The Arizona Diamondbacks came.

But it all ended up to be not good enough. Major League Baseball Teams wanted more. They wanted Tucson to spend more and build more. Teams that spend hundreds of hours traveling each year decided that an hour and a half bus ride from Phoenix was too much for their stars. This year both the Cubs and the Dodgers showed up for games in Tucson with only minor leaguers.

Tucson decided enough was enough so 2010 was the last year for spring training in Tucson. The last of the teams will relocate to Phoenix now and extort cities in that area for new facilities every two or three years. It seems the teams all like that "new car smell".

I will always love to watch baseball and the boy in me will be forever chasing that foul ball in the stands. But when they say it's all about the fans, I'll throw the ball back and call bullshit.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

I drove up to Ogden today to check out a model train show. I walked in and it smelled of body odor and shed mold and it was smaller than I thought it would be. I lived in Ogden for a few months in 1980. I was promoted to manager by a pizza chain called Little Big Man.

The apartment building I lived in on Washington Street has been torn down. The pizza place I worked at on Wall Street has also been torn down.